Menu Plan Monday

I haven't posted this in awhile on the blog out of laziness, but if you saw the side of my fridge, you would see it posted up each week. Our Christmas travel plans are going to mean quite awhile off of kitchen duty. So I'm taking the next couple weeks to really cook a lot and try to use up every last crumb in this house (ok, not really). Brian did me the honor of cooking last night for us. He had an itch for this chicken cheesesteak sandwich he had during his post graduate work in Delaware and so he wanted to try to make a replica. It was sooooo nice to just play with the boys for a whole hour or so while he owned the kitchen. Thanks again, babe! So here's what our week looks like. Once again, I plan about 5 meals a week and then cook them as they suit our days. We always eat one meal out, and we always eat leftovers for another night. So really, planning 5 meals is no biggie. Getting the kids to eat them is my bigger challenge. :)

1. Smoked sausage with green beans and onions, side of brown rice, fruit
2. Homemade pizza, salad, fruit
3. Teriyaki chicken, stirfry veggies and brown rice
4. Taco soup
5. Chicken Pot-pie Empanadas , salad ( REALLY yummy and EASY. Even Noah (4) ate it!)
6. leftovers
7. dinner out

The Perfect Meal..........for him.

I think I might do a series on meals that are perfect to either my husband, me, my kids, friends, etc. We all know the perfect meal can't be perfect to everyone eating, but it's always nice to know you are cooking something that resembles perfection to somebody.

So the other night I made this meal that my husband boldly stated could be part of our regular weekly rotation. Just FYI, we have NO regular weekly rotation whatsoever. But point being, I can cook this meal weekly, and he would love it. I was so tickled to see everyone eating just about everything on their plates. Noah has always been a divine eater but lately (I think in response to seeing his picky younger brother) hasn't been so thrilled about hardly anything I make. Dinner has become that nagging, annoying, pick-up-your-fork-now and take-a-bite, kind of hour. Nobody likes that. But on this night, he ate. A little prodding here and there, but overall, the kids ate enough to make me feel content. Why is it we moms gain such satisfaction from seeing our kids eat? Or backwards-we get grumpy, annoyed and even depressed when we see our kids abstaining from what we put on their plates. I don't know, but I've come to realize that it deeply affects me. Probably because I love to cook so much and I want to see satisfaction on everyone's faces. It's hard to not take it personally, right?

The greatest part about this meal was it was one of the easiest meals I could possibly make. No recipe needed, hardly any prep-work, and one oven temp. Lovely. At the off-chance this meal could be for you, what it was for me, I'm going to provide the recipe. Click here if you would like to see what our meal consisted of, and general instructions.

Well, I'm off to continue packing for our Thanksgiving journey. I apologize for not getting my "Thoughts on Bloomington" post up yet. It's comin'......promise. I hope you all have truly the most wonderful Thanksgiving ever with family and friends. We all have so much to be thankful for--regardless of any storms that might be brewing in our lives right now. For one, you are reading my blog!! Now that's something to be thankful for. :) But seriously, whether you believe it or not, Jesus Christ died on a cross to secure a place in heaven for us. We can have peace and love in our lives instead of guilt and pain due to our sin. We can wake up each day knowing that we are a child of God and that He is working powerfully in this world and through us. He provides certainty in a world of no certainty at all. This gives me cause to feel thankful everyday of the year.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Menu Plan Monday 11-3-08

Wow, can you believe it is NOVEMBER already??? What in the world happened to all the time? We were just moving our sweaty selves into this house in June but it seems like a month or two ago. Crazy. I vividly remember thinking in August that Christmas would be here so soon and here I am doing Christmas shopping today after my grocery shopping! I tend to be an early shopper every year but this year we are going to TX for Thanksgiving (YES!) and so I want to bring everyone's Christmas present with me so I don't have to pay for shipping. More than a hat rack, folks. :) I have a few people left to take care of but I have a great headstart.

So here's my menu plan for the week. Nothing too crazy. Just trying to eat lots of healthy stuff. My lunches are when I'm definitely going health nutty since we don't have to eat the same thing. Dinners are harder to do that with since I'm feeding 3 boys. I'm doing a "cleanse" this week for 7 days so I'll let you know how it goes. It requires me to eat a lot of fruits and veggies and drink lots of water, so looks like I'll be visiting the restroom frequently. :)

1. Autumn Sausage Casserole
2. Chili dogs, tater tots, corn
3. Chicken fajitas, brown rice, beans
4. Pasta with meat sauce, salad
5. Vegetable beef stew in the crockpot
6. Leftovers
7. Eat out

Remember to check out orgjunkie.com for a slew of other recipes and fun menus happening around the country.

Menu Plan Monday

Good afternoon! The kiddos are down for naps and I've gotta take a shower (post-workout-smell) but I thought I'd get our menu plan down for the week. Remember to check out orgjunkie.com for a slew of other recipes and fun menus happening around the country. I'm going to try to start making healthier meals till Thanksgiving even though I consider myself to be pretty health conscious. I buy all lean meats, 2% cheeses, turkey bacon, lots of veggies and fruits, and try to only serve bread with our meal once a week or so. However, I have made an oath with a close friend to lose 10 pounds by Thanksgiving. Oh me oh my. Hence, the post workout smell and attempt to cook healthier. Wish me luck!

1. Leftover lasagna, bread and salad from this weekend
2. Teriyaki chicken, stirfry veggies and brown rice
3. Mexican potato casserole
4. Grilled pork loin, veggies, mac&cheese (for the kiddos of course)
5. Make our own pizza
6. Leftovers
7. Eat out

Menu Plan Monday

Hi folks! I hope your weekend was a very fallish one. Mine was. My mom was in town for almost a week and we enjoyed many beautiful days with bright delightful colors all around us. My hubby is now home and it's so good to be back together again. There has been a little illness here and there, but everyone seems to be on the mend. One night this weekend I had my first "girls night" here in Indy and it was a lot of fun complete with over 2 hours of hang time in a giant spa. There are signs of "settling in" all around. :) So I'll post more shortly with how we are all doing and some incredible pictures I got at Brown County State Park. But for now, the menu plan. I am using a lot of stuff I've had in my freezer for weeks so there won't be anything too over the top this week. Happy cooking!

1. Saucy Chicken Skillet
2. Bean and cheese burritos with rice
3. Teriaki chicken, stirfry veggies and rice
4. Smoked sausage, potato and green bean bake
5. Pork loin, salad, rolls
6. Leftovers
7. Eat out

Menu Plan Monday 9-29

Well folks, another week down and it is almost October! Holy cow, isn't it amazing? I know we all feel like this time of the year flies with all the approaching holidays. I make a special effort to cram fun things into the fall, just so it won't go by so quickly. Anywho, my meals worked out really well last week. I left out a couple of them because my hubby was out of town and I did kid friendly meals instead (aka mac n' cheese, chicken nuggests, etc). Because of the public nature of this blog, I unfortunately can't talk about when Brian is out of town. Sometimes I wish I could so that you all could cheer me on in my single-parent ness. :) But it is what it is. So here is my plan for this week. Remember to email me anytime or comment if you need a recipe. I don't post them all each time because of the time it takes and many of them aren't online. So just give me a shout if you need one. As I stated last week, here is the bullet point fashion that works best for me.

1. Out to dinner at Chick Filet. The reason for this delight is they are doing a deal (only at this location) where anything you buy today, the 29th, can be redeemed for free at a later date if you keep your receipt. So you betcha I'll be taking advantage of that!

2. Flat iron steak, mashed potatoes, and cheese broccoli

3. Homemade pizza.

4. Bacon wrapped chicken, salad

5. Tostadas (with ground turkey), beans, usual toppings, and chips/salsa

6. Leftovers

7. Out to dinner (we have wonderful guests coming this weekend as well as a hopeful date night for Bri and I, so we're bound to eat out one of those times).

Menu Plan Week of September 21

Happy Sunday night yall! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and nice weather. We sure did. I went out and bought some fall-ish candles so the smell of our house is starting to mix with this wonderful weather and you know what that means........fall officially begins tomorrow! Yippee! I honestly don't know a soul that doesn't just love this season. I feel so alive in summer and fall. What a gift! Well, some yummy things to be cooked this week. I've decided that since I like to have flexibility during the week as to what meal I make on what day, I am going to start numbering meals instead of assigning them days. Does that make sense? I encourage you, if you are not a meal planner, to seriously consider coming up with 4 meals a week that you have the ingredients on hand. Then just pick and choose which one to make on what night depending on what is going on with your family. Maybe you like to plan what meal comes on what day and that is great. I like to keep it flexible for what my mood is or what I have defrosted already. So here it goes!

1. Chicken parmesan with sauteed zucchini and penne
2. Steak sandwiches and fresh fruit
3. BLTs and leftover chili
4. Chicken stirfry with brown rice and veggies
5. Flat iron steak, mashed potatoes and cheesy broccoli
6. leftovers
7. out to eat

After some yummy homemade pizza last night (crumbled sausage and pepperoni) Brian decided that he would be just fine with making our own pizza from now on once a week or however often we want it. I was telling him this article I read that was saying that if you order pizza once a week and decide to start making your own, you could save upwards of $700-800 a year!!! Since our pizza turned out so yummy, he conceded and told me we could do that. Wow. You remember that we live in the Midwest in a big college town. PIZZA places reign supreme around here. There is some awesome pizza to be bought so it's a big deal if Brian says he is happy with the kind I make. Woo hoo!! A big pat on the back for April. :) He wants to start making different kinds...buffalo chicken, bbq chicken, etc and that sounds yummy too. So anyway, if you need a crust recipe, click here. That is the kind I made last night. Super easy and quick. Then I just added lots of cheese, cooked sausage, pepperoni and some good pasta sauce. Waalaa.

P.S. I've stocked up on graham crackers, Hershey chocolate bars, and large marshmellows lately. You know what that means for dessert!!!!